Thanks to the support of the Wanganui Eye and Medical Care Trust, Wanganui Hospital’s MRI machine has been upgraded and from today, re-opened for business.

Head of Whanganui District Health Board’s (WDHB) MRI Unit Linda Wood-Bodley said yesterday the $850,000 upgrade had given Whanganui an up-to-date machine comparable with most machines of its size throughout the country.

“We’ve needed an upgrade for some time now so we’re extremely grateful to the Eye and Medical Care Trust for providing the capital to fund it,” Mrs Wood-Bodley says.

Trust chair Richard Moore was equally positive explaining that during the past 25 years, the trust has been involved in purchasing and leasing to the WDHB many items of eye and radiology equipment for the benefit of the community. “Ours is charitable trust which operates through the generous donations received from the Whanganui community,” he said. “Our trustees give their time and expertise on a voluntary basis.”

In the meantime, during the last week of the four weeks that the MRI scanner was out of action, three of the MRI Department’s most experienced staff received training and are now responsible for training their colleagues.

WDHB district residents needing scans during the shut-down period were able to have them in Palmerston North with alternative sites available in New Plymouth and at Pacific Radiology in Wellington if Palmerston North was not able to help.

Mrs Wood-Bodley said a total of nine people needed to travel out of the district for their scans.